Newswire

Greenpeace today unveiled a message for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: a banner on the iconic Sydney Opera House saying: "Stop the Politics - Climate Treaty Now". Five Greenpeace activists scaled one of the sails of the Opera House to do the banner drop.

The banner drop ocurred at 9.20am with police quickly sealing off the area to tourists and the banner was taken down by 10am. The activists have each been charged with trespass.

Copenhagen. Dec 14, 2009. Australia and Japan are currently blocking movement on legally binding emissions reductions for rich countries, which has precipitated in the G77 group of 130 developing countries walking out of climate negotiations unless talks on a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol are prioritized ahead of broader discussions under a second LCA track. A Flashmob of support by civil society for the African and island nations walkout was held in the convention centre.

Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group member, Marlene Obeid, will be traveling on Christmas Eve to the Middle East to join a peace convergence - the Gaza Freedom March.

Ms Obeid and another 13 Australians will be part of a contingent of approximately 1,000 peace activists who have signed up to take part in this world event called in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to put an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

The cheers that greeted Peter Garrett’s Remembrance Day “No “ to Traveston Crossing Dam still reverberate around the Mary Valley but this Saturday they’ll be mixed with the sounds of even more celebration.

(Coverage of the celebration by Noosa Community Radio at http://www.noosacommunityradio.org/elation-and-worries-in-the-mary-valley/)

From 3pm, the Kandanga Recreation grounds (behind the swimming pool) will come alive with music and festivity as residents and well-wishers celebrate the lifting of a yoke that had weighed them down for the past three and a half years.

The World Bank announced on Wednesday $US5.5 billion ($A6 billion) would be invested in solar energy projects in five countries of the Middle East and North Africa in a bid to combat climate change.

http://www.newstin.com/rel/us/en-010-020858239

The United States on Tuesday (8 December) agreed to pay 3.4 billion dollars to settle a long-running lawsuit brought by some 300,000 Native Americans who claimed they had been cheated out of land revenue for more than a century. The class-action lawsuit was first brought 13 years ago and has been the subject of 22 judicial decisions. Many past attempts to settle the claims have failed.

In a bizarre twist on the second day of Copenhagen talks, it has been revealed that Australia is part of a cabal of rich polluting nations including the UK, U.S. and Denmark called the “Circle of Commitment” planning a new agreement that favours the rich nations and sidelines the UN.

The Guardian newspaper has leaked the contents of the draft final agreement prepared by the Circle of Commitment (which sounds like an evil group of villains from a Bond movie!).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-change

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